Evolve has been revived as Evolve: Stage 2, a radical reconfiguration of Turtle Rock's asymmetrical shooter. The action is still fast and unpredictable, with a human opponent helming the monster s brutality against a team of hunters. Best of all, it s free open season for new and returning players alike to revisit the old hunting grounds or step into the jungle for the first time.
Whether you re brushing up on the basics of hunting or tightening up your monster play, the tips in this guide should help.
Hunters
Role call
During a face-off, stick to your job. Your equipment and chosen hunter type Assault, Support, Trapper, or Medic defines your playstyle and interaction between comrades and hulking monster. Don t prioritize dealing damage if you re the Support; that s the Assault s job. As a Medic, healing is your universe. If your arsenal slows or debilitates the monster in some way, use it you re likely the only member of your hunting party with the capability to do so. That doesn t mean you shouldn t send some punishment in the monster s direction, but your attacks should be smartly timed during cooldown intervals of your utility abilities. With the exception of the tanky Assault, randomly attacking the monster is almost always less effective than using your tools to help your team.
Power positioning
Underlined, bolded, and circled in red ink in the hunter s playbook is never get caught in the open. Engaging the monster in flat terrain, though obstacle free for crucial jetpack boosts, is an invitation for the exposed hunters to suffer a maneuverable foe who ll capitalize on superior speed and splash-damage attacks. Grab as much vertical space as you can for valuable protection. Posting non-Assault hunters on outcroppings, cliff faces, rooftops, or any other sort of raised object forces the monster to tilt their view and climb to other targets when they shifts their focus. The added height provides extra oomph to your jetpack drifts when getting out of the monster s trajectory, and it s easier to pick out a similarly elevated landing zone while at a higher hover. If you re the Assault, get into the monster s face and be a stinging nuisance for as long as you can. Otherwise, jet away and jet up.
Track attack
The monster s footprints are glowing breadcrumbs to your prize, but resist the urge to mindlessly chase after track trails around the map. You won t catch up to the faster monster by just following animal carcasses and meandering prints. Instead, head off the monster s predicted pathway. Spread out (but don t isolate yourself!) to try and intersect with the monster s travel direction. Use the minimap as a visual aid for smartly steering your group; if, for example, the only way a monster can go is straight back into your awaiting guns or turn, assume he will turn. Watch out for moments of misdirection: the monster can mask its movements by sneaking or traveling through water to eliminate footprints. The Trapper s planet scanner ability is a great boon for directing the hunter pack in the general direction of the monster, but be prepared for clever monster players to mentally countdown the scanner s duration and resume stalking as soon as the scan ends.
Dome diligence
The Mobile Arena is the dome-shaped gauntlet hunters throw down to coerce the monster into an unavoidable duel and prevent escape for a precious few minutes. Any hunter can trigger the arena after getting close enough to the monster, but don t dome until the moment is advantageous. You ll want to dome when the monster is on the backfoot, ideally after taking some initial chip damage or has little to no armor to shrug off hits. Good dome fights are dictated by the surrounding terrain it encircles avoid dangerously close-range map sections such as caves or tunnels and go for rocky crags or ledge-filled overlooks for extra movement space and natural cover. Make sure your team is close before engaging the dome; though fellow hunters can enter the dome from the outside, you don t want to initiate a challenge with no one at your side for the first vital seconds.
The Medic makes a team
A successful hunting expedition needs a successful Medic. Choosing to be the Medic requires mastery of dodging and positioning, as you ll need to constantly evade the monster s onslaught which will certainly be focused on you above all others while monitoring jetpack juice, tracking ability cooldowns, and healing wounded teammates. As a different hunter role, you ll sometimes need to double as snap bodyguard for your Medic and absorb as much incoming damage as you can withstand. If the Medic falls, your posse will likely topple soon afterwards.
Val is a good starter choice for a traditionally kitted doc; her medgun offers no-frills single-target healing while her scoped tranquilizer rifle emphasizes distance to land effective shots. For something more offbeat, give Lazarus a try. Beyond a decently restorative healing burst, he lacks direct healing. His true speciality lies with his Lazarus device and personal cloak, the latter a defensive bonus for using the latter to quickly revive dead teammates.
On the next page, essential tips for Monsters.
Monsters
Smells swell
A tap of the right mouse button engages the monster s mega-nostrils, granting an olfactory burst of intel. It highlights nearby animals, hunters, and briefly displays your footprint trail to help discern where your foolish pursuers will close in from. Sniffed organics will also show through walls and structures, handy for clever-girl ambushes and keeping tabs on pesky hunters. Smelling is free, low cooldown, and a vital tool for a master monster. Spam it.
The need to feed
Always be on the move to seek out herds of animals to fill your belly and your armor bar. Chomping on prey also adds progress toward evolving to the monster s second or third stage which, as subtly urged by the game s name, is kind of a big deal. Evolving bulks up your armor and health pools while bestowing three additional points to enhance your abilities. If you re not bringing down nature s wrath on the hunters, you should be stuffing your face with animals. Some creatures carry helpful temporary buffs such as bonus poison damage for attacks or faster climbing speed; look for an animal with a shaft of light above it to spot one. Stay mobile and stop sparingly you move much faster than the hunters, so use that to your advantage as you comb the map for food.
Bot up to skill up
The foundation of a good monster player is a sturdy grasp of the monster s lumbering movement.
Using your slowly recharging traversal jumps a mighty spacebar leap that covers significant ground and knowing when to withhold them for juking out of a dome or rocketing to the next animal pack is just as important as chaining well-aimed attacks. Fire up a bot round or two as a warmup before queuing for a live match. The bots are uncannily adept at tracking and zeroing in on your position, and their dodgy behavior during combat is enough of an approximation of human players to help touch up climbing paths, feeding circuits, and evading fire.
The Goliath is a superb starting monster. Their straightforward moveset emphasizes huge leaps and bullish charges, so they boast an excellently forgiving beginner s experience. The Kraken is a fun, but more fragile alternative the attack helicopter of Evolve, their traversals keep them hovering to rain down lightning strikes and bomb blasts on ground targets.
Total dome-ination
As the monster, getting domed is inevitable. You ll be committed to combat, but that shouldn t panic. The sheer power of the monster holds sway over the battle s momentum and flow, and your control of the monster tips the opening gambit in your favor. When domed, avoid barging into the hunters and flailing mindlessly. While catching multiple hunters in an area-of-effect attack is always a bonus, you ll want to constantly take stock of where each hunter type sits in relation to your movements and shift priorities accordingly.
Always try going for the Medic first; KOing them removes the ability to heal your incoming damage and greatly helps your odds. The Support should be your secondary target for their ability to shield and provide buffs to other hunters you might need to make their your top priority if they re focusing the Medic, as the latter will simply outlast your damage if a Support wingmans them. Of less importance is the Assault, but don t shrug them off entirely their substantial damage output will continually chew through your armor and health. The Trapper is more of an annoyance than an immediate threat, as they ll harpoon you and slow your momentum but deal little direct damage. Make sure to turn and attack the harpoon cables whenever they sting into your hide.
Plan for the scan A popular hunter tactic at the start of a round is to immediately fire off a planet scan to draw a bead on your location. Since the monster moves quite fast, you shouldn t feel discouraged when the scan notice pops up on your screen as long as you keep moving. The scanner may have somewhat dimmed the effectiveness of stealthily creeping around the map, but you can still misdirect the hunters with some clever footwork. Try timing your bluff near the end of a scan s duration: stomp off in one direction to create a footprint trail, then crouch and double back right when the scan ceases. The hunters will soon catch on to your shenanigans as they follow your trail, but with luck, you can set up an ambush from behind or the side for a strong alpha strike.